Buhari names Major-General Farouk Yahaya as new army chief

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has named Major-General Farouk Yahaya as the new chief of army staff.

Yahaya, a major general, will replace the deceased Attahiru Ibrahim with immediate effect.

Prior to his appointment, Majo-General Yahaya was the General Officer Commanding 1 Division of the Nigerian Army and the theatre commander of a military counter-terrorism unit in the North East.

Yahaya’s appointment comes six days after his predecessor Lt General Ibrahim Attahiru and ten other military personnel died in an air crash while on an official trip to Kaduna State.

Buhari appointed Attahiru in January 2021 as part of a shakeup in the country’s security architecture.

Mourning Attahiru, Buhari said the crash “was one mortal blow to our underbelly, at a time our armed forces are poised to end the security challenges facing the country.”

Attahiru, Acting Chief of Military Intelligence, Brigadier General Abdulkadir Kuliya; Chief of Staff to the late COAS, Brigadier General Mohammed Idris Abdulkadir; Brigadier General Olatunji Lukman Olayinka, Aide-De-Camp to the COAS, Major Lawal Aliyu Hayat, and Major Nura Hamza have been buried last Saturday.

Others were the pilot of the ill-fated aircraft, Flight Lieutenant Taiwo Olufemi Asaniyi, Flight Lieutenant Alfred Ayodeji Olufade, Sergeant Opeyemi Isaiah Adesina, Sergeant Umar Saidu and Aircraftman (ACM) Olamide Matthew Oyedepo.